12 guage 00 buck question

[Spaceballs]

I am new to shotguns. Very amature trying to learn.

Today I patterned a Remington 870 12 gauge I have set up as a home defense gun with a shorter police barrel.

I used 3 loads to experiment with. All 00 Buck.

Hornaday Critical Defense and Federal (both with a flight control wad by different names) worked great for a home defense purpose with super tight 1.5" -2" groups at 7 yards and were dead on accurate for my point of aim. The Federals performed slightly better and are now my HD round of choice.

But Remington shells without a flight control wad were 9 inch groups (roughly) at that distance. That doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies for defensive rounds. Too much chance for a flyer to hit something I don't want hit.

Would those Remington shells perform better with a longer barrel? Like for hunting...not home defense. Or does my shotgun just hate the Remington rounds?

I have a longer barrel...I just didn't bring it with me to test it.

I have 95 of those Remington shells (A guy wanted to sell them cheap and I love a bargain). Now I am wondering if they have any value to me or if I should try to trade them for something else. I'm not a hunter.

[85MikeTPI]

I am new to shotguns. Very amature trying to learn.

Today I patterned a Remington 870 12 gauge I have set up as a home defense gun with a shorter police barrel.

I used 3 loads to experiment with. All 00 Buck.

Hornaday Critical Defense and Federal (both with a flight control wad by different names) worked great for a home defense purpose with super tight 1.5" -2" groups at 7 yards and were dead on accurate for my point of aim. The Federals performed slightly better and are now my HD round of choice.

But Remington shells without a flight control wad were 9 inch groups (roughly) at that distance. That doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies for defensive rounds. Too much chance for a flyer to hit something I don't want hit.

Would those Remington shells perform better with a longer barrel? Like for hunting...not home defense. Or does my shotgun just hate the Remington rounds?

I have a longer barrel...I just didn't bring it with me to test it.

I have 95 of those Remington shells (A guy wanted to sell them cheap and I love a bargain). Now I am wondering if they have any value to me or if I should try to trade them for something else. I'm not a hunter.

I'm no expert, but I think the rems can be controlled by chokes, but the flight wads are independent of choke.

I personally wouldn't care about a 9" group unless you're in such a high density victim area (kids' bedrooms?) that
it starts to be a concern. 9" on just about any badguy is GTG in my book...

[JAKIII]

I am new to shotguns. Very amature trying to learn.

Today I patterned a Remington 870 12 gauge I have set up as a home defense gun with a shorter police barrel.

I used 3 loads to experiment with. All 00 Buck.

Hornaday Critical Defense and Federal (both with a flight control wad by different names) worked great for a home defense purpose with super tight 1.5" -2" groups at 7 yards and were dead on accurate for my point of aim. The Federals performed slightly better and are now my HD round of choice.

But Remington shells without a flight control wad were 9 inch groups (roughly) at that distance. That doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies for defensive rounds. Too much chance for a flyer to hit something I don't want hit.

Would those Remington shells perform better with a longer barrel? Like for hunting...not home defense. Or does my shotgun just hate the Remington rounds?

I have a longer barrel...I just didn't bring it with me to test it.

I have 95 of those Remington shells (A guy wanted to sell them cheap and I love a bargain). Now I am wondering if they have any value to me or if I should try to trade them for something else. I'm not a hunter.

Not an expert either. However, my understanding is that (contrary to popular opinion) a shotgun does need to be aimed and you will likely be inside of 7 yards in a self-defense situation.

[Emptymag]

[streaker69]

Not an expert either. However, my understanding is that (contrary to popular opinion) a shotgun does need to be aimed and you will likely be inside of 7 yards in a self-defense situation.

All ya gots to do is rack that 12gauge and the bad guy runs.

[Spaceballs]

All ya gots to do is rack that 12gauge and the bad guy runs.

No.

You fire 2 warning shots in the air out of a double barreled shotgun.

That is what scares bad guys off. They hate empty shotguns, apparently.

[oldengineer]

All ya gots to do is rack that 12gauge and the bad guy runs.

I got an 870 34 years ago and that's what the gun shop guy told me. He said that if he didn't I'd better be prepared to kill him.

[Sparks]

The whole idea of using a shotgun is to get the spread.

[JenniferG]

The whole idea of using a shotgun is to get the spread.

This^^^^^

You can control the amount of spread with the choke. If it's a recent police barrel it's probably 18" with an Improved Cylinder fixed choke. If it has screw in chokes and you want to tighten the pattern you would use a modified or full choke. A 9" spread of .30 caliber round lead projectiles is perfectly fine for home defense as long as you are not concerned with penetration into other rooms of the house. The rounds with flight control are designed for much longer distances and any 00 Buck at home defense ranges are fine as long as you are fine with the amount of collateral damage that is caused. Make sure to watch the Paul Harrell video Empty posted. It's pretty thorough.

[JAKIII]

This^^^^^

You can control the amount of spread with the choke. If it's a recent police barrel it's probably 18" with an Improved Cylinder fixed choke. If it has screw in chokes and you want to tighten the pattern you would use a modified or full choke. A 9" spread of .30 caliber round lead projectiles is perfectly fine for home defense as long as you are not concerned with penetration into other rooms of the house. The rounds with flight control are designed for much longer distances and any 00 Buck at home defense ranges are fine as long as you are fine with the amount of collateral damage that is caused. Make sure to watch the Paul Harrell video Empty posted. It's pretty thorough.

That's generally outside of 10 yards though, right?

Ok if you're shooting someone in the yard, I guess.